March Madness: An Education for Australians and a Look at the Final Four
In terms of cultural significance, few events are more important in the United States than the NCAA Tournament. March Madness, they call it, and the symptoms are as follows:
– A total obsession with college hoops.
– The need to fill out tournament brackets and place them in various locations such as the office, home and the local bar.
– Inordinate concern about little-known colleges such as George Mason and Cleveland State.
– A genuine belief in and hope for fairytales and Cinderella stories.
– A need to constantly check box scores and live trackers to ensure no game goes unnoticed.
– A refusal to question the actual existence of terms such as bracketology.
– Arguing with everybody, from family to vagrants living in a cardboard box at the end of the street, at a level of final seriousness, that the “Elite Eight” should be changed to the “Great Eight”: the issue is far more important than the Global Financial Crisis.
– Face painting.
It is defined by Uncyclopedia as “a brief, yet sudden panic, where individuals who are otherwise regular, sane humans find themselves constantly screaming about topics such as pools, brackets and something simply referred to as Gonzaga”.
Onset usually comes on mid-March during the conference tournaments and the madness lasts until early April, Final Four weekend, when the champion is determined and the bracket pools are settled and lore is added to and the Northern spring sets in.
March Madness is widespread and can be considered an epidemic that lands annually.
Even President Obama has been struck down by it, filling out a bracket on national television and deriding the state of Pac-10 basketball, much to the annoyance of the residents in California, Washington, Arizona and Oregon who helped make him President. For the record, Obama picked three number one seeds and a number two to make the Final Four. North Carolina, who he picked to win it all, is his only remaining team.
Everybody cares about the tournament. It is America’s version of the Melbourne Cup where everyone from the diehards to the usually-ambivalent get involved, making college basketball the most important show in town for three weeks. Passionate college hoops fans await every game. Casual fans get attached to the storylines. The non-hoops fan contemplates who would win a battle between an Orangeman and a Sun Devil (both one in the same to a good Catholic from Notre Dame or St. Joseph’s).
Their bracket is our sweep, their George Mason is our Rogan Josh, their John Wooden is our Bart Cummings and their three weeks in March are our three minutes in November.
In the words of Timothy Egan of the New York Times, the NCAA Tournament is their “greatest sideshow, mood-lifter and time-suck all in one. It’s sports at its most thrilling, more so than the slow choreography of baseball’s World Series, the bloated spectacle of the Super Bowl or the go-through-the-motions slog of professional basketball playoffs. And forget about college football, now facing the possibility of its championship system being determined by Congress”.
There is a depth and width to the March Madness that does not exist in any other modern day cultural phenomenon in America making the tournament quintessentially Americana. Baseball is too slow as a form of modern entertainment and as such has declined in popularity. The NBA Championship has never been able to propel itself into the stratosphere of extreme importance. The Super Bowl is the most watched event in the US but it is predominantly a big-city phenomenon, the bastion of corporate and urbanised America. College Football has no satisfying conclusion and as such is followed with due caution.
Simply, March Madness is loved because of its simplicity (kids playing basketball in a simple knockout tournament), relative equality (a win is a win and a loss is a loss and the champion is determined on the court), inclusivity (sixty-five schools means sixty-five rabid supporter bases, colleges are often located in regions without professional teams, each stage is played across the country making the games easily accessible) and its ability to generate hope (for small schools, for big schools, for those who love a fairytale, for those who love great moments, for those looking to be distracted from the mire of everyday life).
Moments such as Christian Laettner’s 18-foot turnaround jumper on the buzzer to beat Kentucky, Chris Webber’s ill-advised timeout in the 1993 championship game, David Thompson’s performance in the 1974 national semi-final to end the UCLA juggernaut, Villanova’s unbelievable upset of Georgetown and the victory of the all-black Texas Western against the all-white Kentucky are woven deeply into the fabric of American sports lore.
This year, four schools representing four very different strands of American life remain.
The University of North Carolina, the Tar Heels, entered the tournament as a number one seed, the number one team in the country and the clear tournament favourite. North Carolina is a school steeped in basketball tradition and is a college considered basketball royalty. Chapel Hill, the home of UNC, lies in the heartland of college basketball where no other game matters. The Tar Heels have won four national titles in four different decades and lost the tournament final a further four times. Dean Smith, who coached the team from 1961 to 1997, has the second most wins of any coach in college basketball history. Michael Jordan was a Tar Heel as were the likes of Bob McAdoo, James Worthy, Billy Cunningham, Hubie Davis, Sam Perkins, Lee Shafer and Vince Carter. They represent college basketball elitism with the tradition certainly continuing this year under coach Roy Williams, third all-time in winning percentage in the NCAA. Senior Tyler Hansborough, the 6’9 power forward who won every major award he was eligible for last season, leads a team of outstanding basketball players that includes outstanding junior point guard and ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson and pure shooter Danny Green. North Carolina enter the Final Four as a short priced favourite to dance the longest and proudest with a victory to the Tar Heels a victory for basketball order, structure and obscure monikers.
The University of Connecticut do not have the history or tradition of North Carolina but have come to be recognised over the last two decades as a basketball powerhouse though more in the factory mould than as anything to be revered. There are 14 UConn players in the NBA today including Rip Hamilton, Ray Allen and Ben Gordon and the school is renowned for churning out ready-made professionals. UConn basketball, much like say Florida football, is concerned only with winning, undermining many of the higher ideals of college sports. Graduation rates and a clean program don’t seem to be major factors in Connecticut these days. They are coached by Jim Calhoun, who has led the school to their only two national championships (in 1999 and 2004) and has recently “embarrassed” the school and the state, according to the Connecticut governor, after he lambasted a reporter who queried his salary, saying he would “not give a dime back”. Throw in the current scandal regarding the improprieties regarding the recruitment of a former player and the picture of Connecticut basketball under Jim Calhoun is well and truly painted. The fact the school is located in New England does nothing to endear it to a working class warrior. The only likable thing about the school is their mascot, the Husky, but even he looks so well maintained and fed that one can’t help but hate the privilege he has been born into. The Huskies will be led by big man Hasheem Thabeet and tough forward Stanley Robinson. Both will be rabidly hissed and booed by any man, woman or child who claims personal decency as a characteristic.
The Michigan State Spartans are far more likable, the home town heroes to a state on the brink this weekend. The Spartans represent an area knocking on death’s door, where time and money are both running out. Michigan is not a grand place to be right now with car manufacturers closing doors and unemployment rates soaring higher than Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the greatest Spartan of them all. While the state is split down the middle between those who sport the Spartan green and those who wear the maze and blue of the Wolverines, there is little doubt that the Michigan State men’s basketball program is a source of pride in the Great Lake State. As Wolverines basketball floundered under the weight of scandal and the Detroit Lions continued to embarrass the state, as the Pistons underachieved and eventually imploded and as hockey’s decline undermined the recent successes of the Red Wings, Michigan State basketball has been consistently successful over the last decade. The Spartans have played in twelve straight tournaments dating back to 1998 with five Final Four appearances over that period and the school’s second national title in 2000. The Tom Izzo era has been one of stability and success. Going back further, Michigan State partook in one of the most anticipated college basketball matches in history when the Magic Johnson led Spartans defeated the Larry Bird led Indiana State in the 1979 tournament decider, a rivalry that would eventually define the NBA of the 1980’s. When the Spartans step on to Ford Field in Detroit, they will rightfully be the sentimental favourites. If Karma equates to fairness, Michigan State will reign supreme as national champion.
Villanova are another team from a working class city, Philadelphia, one of basketball’s greatest towns. Philadelphians are hard markers but there is little doubt that Villanova has done the city proud on the basketball court and in a way the team has summed up the sports ethos of the city: gritty, determined, overachieving. Villanova are a school, particularly in the current era under Jay Wright, for getting good kids into the program who play hard and get the fundamentals right. Nova also created the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament victory by winning the 1985 championship, defeating the legendary Georgetown team in the final after starting the tournament as an eight seed. Villanova won on fundamentals that famous night, shooting an amazing 22-for-28 and missing only one shot in the second half. The Georgetown team led by Patrick Ewing had no answers and one of the greatest moments in Philadelphia’s long and luminous sports history was written. The Wildcat faithful will be hoping to channel the legend of ’85 this weekend in the Motor City where they will head as the tournament’s biggest underdog.
Betting and common sense suggest North Carolina will defeat Connecticut in the final but the tournament isn’t always about betting and common sense and the hope of the fairytale remains alive. Karma tends to play a bigger role in the NCAA tournament than in any other sporting event. No team has gotten within 12 points of North Carolina in the tourney but the pressure of expectation must surely weight heavily on the team that has been considered the top team all year. It must also be noted that only six teams have won the tournament ranked number one in the country since the seeding system was introduced in 1979. They take on Villanova in the first national semi-final and are far from certainties after Villanova walked through their first three matches before a huge upset win over Pitt. In the other semi-final, a class battle of mammoth proportions is set to take place and if the tournament gods have any class they will throw the working class Michiganites a bone and allow the Spartans an upset win over a Connecticut program ensconced in yet another scandal. It is a battle of good versus evil, right versus wrong, Rocky versus Apollo Creed. Michigan State will have home court advantage, the goodwill of most of America and a state desperate for distraction behind them. If ever there was a need for a fairytale, now is the time.
Michigan State are the sentimental selection. And the selection of this hoops fan.